HE’S HERE! Finnish Champion BAITO Arrives

We are pleased to be able to announce the signing of current Finnish Overwatch Champion, Samuli ‘BAITO’ Karppinen to NYYRIKKI Overwatch.

Baito returning to competitive Overwatch is a success story in itself, with the 19 year old being forced out of action with a severe arm injury that put his esports career in jeopardy last year. Through hard work, painful physio sessions and determination to return to his passion, he has overcome the odds and signed a professional contract here at NYYRIKKI Esports as our new DPS player.

Baito is well known for his time in Team Fortress 2 where he captained Team PremTech to many successes as well as winning the Finnish Overwatch Championships in 2017 with local rivals, ENCE Esports.

With the signing of Baito, we also must announce that Santeri ‘snade’ Hellsten has been taken off the starting 6. We would like to thank Snade for his hard work thus far here at NYYRIKKI.

NYYRIKKI Overwatch Manager, Sami Ferm commented:

“Moving up towards the 2018 Overwatch Open Division Season 2 we decided to bolster our roster with the addition to BAITO. BAITO Is a very talented and experienced DPS player who adds a lot of frontline shotcalling and a diverse hero-pool to our lineup. With this addition we are looking forward towards Season 2 stronger than ever.”

BAITO also gave a statement of his return and the process of him signing with NYYRIKKI:

“After my comeback to Overwatch from injury time (5th of March 2018), I wanted to test my limits but I doubted that my arm would be strong enough to go pro again at the time so I thought that I would just sub for a Contenders team until it is strong enough. After all there were so many familiar faces from my 2017 journey in the ongoing contenders season. However, after grinding my mechanics back playing bots and ranked 7-15 hours each day for 10 days straight without days off, I realized that I could actually comeback and go fulltime pro. I started subbing for multiple teams in scrims and Nyyrikki was one of the first teams I subbed for. It instantly clicked between me and their players and the coaches. However, because I was a wanted man and had plenty of offers from other teams too I decided that I want to “check all the cards” before selecting where I go. From outsiders perspective Nyyrikki was not the biggest organization or in contenders yet unlike compared to the other offers I received.

However while checking the other teams out it became clear to me that the Nyyrikki was something special and clearly were the team with the most potential future. I had never played in such a positive, receiving and willing to improve environment. The team has no toxicity at all and players are strict with the schedule and have the work ethic it takes to become the world’s best. This is the best possible timing for me personally go fulltime esports because 2 weeks after my comeback, my school ended finally and now I have a year off, most likely multiple years, to check what I am capable of as a player. My own aim is to become the world’s best and never stop improving. To achieve that goal I surely need to work like the best player in the world would. Since my comeback I have had a strict esport schedule that includes around 10-14 hours of esport related stuff each day 6 days a week, I also have a private Overwatch coach to help me even more and I literally prioritize everything in my life around Overwatch. So I am glad to tell you that you were wrong if you thought I was at my max potential when I went nuts with my projectile DPS gameplay in the EU scene in 2017. I have been practicing with Nyyrikki for around 3 weeks now and I am sure that with the way we practice and keep improving here we are going to go BIG in the incoming open division season and future! Everyone should surely watch out for this team!”

NYYRIKKI Esports is a professional esports team based in Helsinki, Finland. The name Nyyrikki comes from the very depths of Finnish Mythology, the Kalevala. Nyyrikki is the Finnish God of hunting who ruled the hunt.